A potential PR opportunity for the Pharmaceutical industry that will probably go begging

An interesting nugget of pharmaceutical research news was released last week - http://bit.ly/d7G9PD - that could have very profound implications for the pharma industry. In short, in MS patients it may be possible to identify the likely efficacy of beta-interferon therapy in advance: some patients will respond to it, but for others it may actually worsen their condition.

This is a multi-billion dollar global market and the beta-interferon players must be very nervous if this research is validated. I don’t know the % of likely non-responders, but imagine if it was say, a third. That’s potentially nearly a billion dollars wiped off Avonex sales for a start. Of course for Biogen, it may not be such bad news as they have another non-interferon product in their MS portfolio, but Teva may be jumping for joy at the news as many IFN-non-responding patients would possibly be switched to Copaxone.

But imagine if this finding could be expanded to other therapy areas? Oncology is the obvious example, but what about more common diseases such as hypertension or diabetes? It could be argued that pharma companies enjoy the uncertainty that inevitably surrounds the absolute efficacy of their drugs: after all, if a doctor has to prescribe in the hope that a drug works, rather than in certainty, then there’s bound to be more prescribed than necessary.

So I hope pharmaceutical companies, especially the beta-interferon players themselves, embrace this research wholeheartedly for the good of all MS patients. It would be a massive PR boost for our beleaguered industry if companies freely and actively helped to refine the technology and put it to use as soon as possible. It might wipe the odd billion dollars off their bottom lines, but so what? These drugs are pretty old medicines now and likely to be superseded in the medium term, but of course, if I were a shareholder I might not be so cavalier.

So do I think they will do it? I have serious doubts, but I would love to be proved wrong.

Written by Neil Dickinson (@neil_dickinson)